Sadly Over-hyped

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Blaxploitation films are so frequently ridiculed and parodied (much of it with reason) these days, that it's easy to forget that some of them were actually pretty good. Shaft (1971) paved the way for the sub-genre with its strutting bad-ass lead who's a sex-machine to all the chicks, and Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score (for what he will forever be best remembered for). Hayes himself steps into the lead role here as ex- American football star and bail bondsman Mac 'Truck' Turner, who according to Yaphet Kotto's bad-guy pimp Blue, is "like a bulldog with eyes up his ass!", and displays some surprisingly charismatic qualities that makes it quite a shame he didn't appear in more.Greasy lawyer Fogarty (the great Dick Miller) employs bounty-hunters 'Truck' Turner and his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks - with the best grin in cinema) to track down a low-down pusher and pimp named Gator (Paul Harris). After an extended chase scene, Turner and Jerry manage to kill Gator, much to the dismay of Gator's lady Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols - Uhura!). Dorinda rounds up the big pimps and offers her valuable collection of whores in exchange for Turner's head, a deal in which Blue accepts. Wanting to settle down with his girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase), Turner finds his life turned upside when Blue employs a gang of hired killers.Beginning almost as a buddy-comedy, the witty script and some genuine chemistry serve up some amusing early scenes, showing off Hayes' natural screen presence. But this turns into pure police procedural blaxploitation as the main plot kicks in, with jive-talk, pimps in some of the most delightfully ludicrous dress I've ever seen, car-chases, slow-motion shoot-outs, cocaine, hookers, and of course a tragically neglected soundtrack from Hayes himself. The action scenes are surprisingly good, and Corman protégé Jonathan Kaplan (director of fellow Grindhouse Project feature Night Call Nurses (1972) - review #443) makes sure he includes as much slow-motion men falling off rooftops and gushing fake blood as possible. Bloody good fun, and probably better than Shaft.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Truck is a bounty hunter who gets a job to track down a guy named Gator.When he and his partner find him, a chase ensues and Gator is killed. This makes Gator's woman, Dorinda, very angry and she puts a hit on Truck.The man who agrees to kill Truck is named Blue. The question is whether Truck can survive with Blue and his gang on his trail....This movie is the pinnacle of seventies exploitation cinema. It wears it's tongue firmly in cheek, and although the third act is decidedly dark compared to the first two, it's constantly funny, and has been referenced with it's connotation and sharp dialogue ever since.Saying that the film is laugh out loud funny isn't criticising the film, but when Turner is chasing Gator, and Gator hit's every object in sight, it's hard not to find the film funny.This sort of film could never be made now, thanks to the derogatory way that women are treated, and of course the use of one word, but in this case, people could argue that it was a term of endearment. Hayes is fantastic as the titular character, and there is some brutal camera-work, especially the initial punch up and the point of view of Kottos demise.It's very easy to watch, story is simple as is narrative, and it's a breezy, fun film while it lasts.

Isaac Hayes is bail bondsman Truck Turner; he's a man's man, no he's a man's man's man. Charming with the ladies and mean with the baddies, "he's like a bulldog with eyes up his ass". For someone more famous for his funky and cool music, which also won him the Oscar for the score of Shaft, Hayes displays an abundance of natural charisma and screen presence that it's really a shame he didn't have more lead roles in his day. He was also considered for the role of Shaft but it ended up in Richard Roundtree's hands.Truck Turner the movie is every bit the blaxploitation classic one should expect. Filled with hot rods, jive ass broads, pimps and crooks, superb dialogues in that outdated but always funny 70's genre lingo and enough slow motion gunfights to equal Sam Peckinpah, Truck Turner is a thrill a minute and one of the best the genre has to offer. It starts off as a buddy movie as Turner and his bail bondsman friend are trying to track down a pimp called Gator and before long it turns 180 degrees into a revenge movie to rival Coffy. There's a long chase sequence in the first act that ranks among the best of the decade: it has everything from cars chasing and crushing their way through anything to gunfights en route and ends with a good old bar fight. That's just one of the good parts of the movie, as it manages to work on all levels: the action is nice in that good old fashioned way, the dialogues are not just filler, the drama works when it has to and the comedic timing is spot on.Eighteen days from the posting of this review Isaac Hayes passed away and heaven became a little funkier. We'll always have stuff like Truck Turner to remember and cherish him for. RIP man.

This is a better than average so-called "blaxploitation" film about a bounty hunter named Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes). When he and his partner are trying to bring in a pimp after he jumped bail, the pimp tries to shoot Turner and Turner has no choice but to shoot him. However, he never anticipated that the pimp's woman (Nichelle Nichols) was a total psycho and she put a contract out on Turner. The rest of the film consists of various hoods (most notably Yahpet Kotto) trying to kill Turner.This is a pretty exciting film and is well directed, written and acted--making this very unusual for the genre. Most blaxploitation films have horrible production values and are best seen as "guilty pleasures"--this film stands well on its own and doesn't suffer from many of the clichés you'd normally find in one of these films.One of the more interesting reasons to see the movie is to see Nichols in a non-Star Trek role. Here, she is 100% different from Lt. Uruhu, as she's a very filthy mouthed and angry lady indeed!! She's intensely nasty--and one of the most despicable women you'd ever see in a blaxploitation film! While this film is far from high art and not exactly subtle, if you are looking for a 1970s Black-American themed action picture, it's hard to do much better than this one.